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A defendant has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and received his prison sentence raised to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her residence in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, connected with the victim's then husband, the husband, in an digital platform called “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We trust the jury will affirm that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not delegated,” stated the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Consent is received directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Case History

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in recent French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent the husband graphic images and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, stated to the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a focus point for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his actions had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan engaged in violation multiple times over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant stated to the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to hurt that individual.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers gathered to support her, told Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is unlawful to rape an unaware woman. When did I ever give you consent? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The community is maybe in the process of that, maybe motivated by the collective awareness brought by the exposure of your situation.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire disturbing cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged ten. When he was 17 he was apprehended by police for drug trafficking and his father kicked him out the family house. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that each year he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the stress of the first trial.